Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-04-29


the indignation of customers about the high
prices comes on the clerk. For instance:
A great war comes. The manufactures are
closed. The people go off to battle. The
price of goods runs up. A customer comes
into store. Goods have gone up. GLOW
much is that worth?' "a dollar" IA dol
lar! Outrageous. A dollarl" Why, who is
to blame for the fact that it has got to be a
dollars Does the indignation go out to the
manufacturers on the banks of the Merrimac
because they have closed up? No. Does the
indignation go out toward the employer, who
is out at his country seat? No. 1t comes on
the clerk. He got up the wari He levied
the taxes! He puts up the rents! Of course
the clerk
Then a great trial comes to clerks in the
fact that they see the parsimonious side of
human nature. You talk about lies behind
the counter-there are just as many lies be-
fore the counter. Augustine speaks of man
who advertised that he would on certain
occasion, tell the people what was in their
hearts. A great crowd assembled and he
stepped to the front and said: II will tell you
what is in your hearts: To buy cheap and sell
dear" Oh people of Brooklyn! lay not aside
your urbanity when you come into a store.
Treat the clerks like gentlemen and ladies
proving yourself to be a gentleman or a
lady. Remember that if the prices are high
and your purse is lean, that is no fault of the
clerks. And if you have a son or a daughter
amid those perplexities of commercial life,
and such one comes home all worn out, be
lenient and know that the martyr at the stake
no more certainly needs the grace of God
than our young people amid the seven
times heated exasperations of clerks life.
Then there are all the trials which come to
clerks from the treatment Of inco1fsiderate
employers. There are professed Christian
men in this city who have no more regard for
their clerks than they have for the scales on
which the sugars are weighed. A clerk is no
more than SO much store furniture. No con-
sderation for their rights or their interests.
Not one word of encouragement from sunrise
to sunset, nor from January to December.
But when anything goes wrong-a streak of
dust on the counter or a box with the cover
off-thunder showers of scolding. Men inn
perious, capricious, cranky toward their
clerks-their whole manner as much as to
say: Gall the interest have in you is to- see
what can get out Of you.@'
Then there are all the trials of incompetent
wages. Some of you remember when the
war broke out and all merchandise went up,
and merchants were made milionaires in six
months by the simple rise in the value of
goods. Did the clerk get the advantage of
that rise? Sometimes, not always. I saw
estates gathered in those times over which the
curse of God has hung ever since. The cry
of underpaid men and women in those stores
reached the Lord of Sabaoth, and the indig-
nation of God has been around those estab-
lishments ever since; rumbling in the car
rage wheels, flashing in the chandeliers,
glowing from the crimson upholstery, thun-
dering in the long roll of the ten pin alley
Such men build up palaces of merchandise
heaven high, but after while disaster will
come along and will put one hand on this pill
Ian, and another hand on that pillar, and throw
itself forward until down will come the
whole structure, crushing the worshipers as
grapes are mashed in a wine press
Then there are boys in establishments who
are ruined-in prosperous establishments
ruined by their lack of compensation In
how many prosperous stores it has been for
the last twenty years that boys were given
just enough money to learn them how to
steal! Some were seized upon by the police.
The vast majority of instances were not
known. The head of the firm asked: @Where
is George now?" ooh, he isn't here any
more" ~
A lad might better starve to death on a
blasted heath than take one cent from his en-
ployer. Woe be to that employer who I'M
necessarily puts temptation in a boys way
There have been great establishments in these
cities, building marble palaces, their owners
dying worth millions and millions and mil
lions who made vast amount of their estate
out of the blood and muscle and nerve of
half paid clerks Such men as-well, I will
not mention any name. But I mean men
who have gathered up vast estates at the ex-
pense of the people who were ground under
their heel. ''Oh," say such merchants, Elf
you don't like it here then go and get a 5As-
ter place." As much as to say: "I've ,<4se
you in my grip, and mean to hold you 3ou
can't get any other place" Oh, what = uoa-s
trast we see between such men and il.{@e
Christian merchants of Brooklyn and Se,s
York who to-day are sympathetic with tbsis
eerks-when they pay the salary, acting IN
:his way: "This salary that give you is
not all my interest in you. You are an i'm
mortal man; you are an immortal woman;
am interested in your present and your
everlasting welfare; 1 want you to under
stand that, if I am a little higher up in this
store, am beside you in Christian sympa-
thy" &c back y, ears TO Arthur Tar
pens store in EseS 3F whose sTors,s
morning he ougbt an tn the . sesSs "a
accouloanE and the weighers into aroom
lor oev2tion. They sang. They prayed.
lney sxhorted. On Monday morning the
cleTE were asked where they had attended
cnGfch the previous day, and what the ser
Gons were about. 1t must have sound
ed strangely that voice of praise along
the streets where the devotees of Mammon
were counting their golden beads. You say,
Arthur Happen failed. Yes, he was un-
fortunate, like great many good men, but
understand he met all his obligations before
he left this world, and know that he died in
the peace of the Gospel, and that he is before
the throne of God to-day-forever blessed.
If that be failing, wish that you might all
fail There are gre at many young men in
this city-yea, in this housewife want a
word of encouragement-Chr Christian encour-
agement. One smile of good cheer WouldI
be worth more to them Tomorrow NOR -
ing in their places of business than. Z
present of $4,000 ten years hence. 4 81 =,
remember the apprehension and tremQ an
tering profession. I remember y1as;., ;ca5
the man who greeted me in the ecy foser sl of
court with the tip ends of the log6a og|l,er ms =
the left hand; and remember II bis aud s oil.
who took my hand in both Won have en-
"God bless you, my broth !. be faithful to
tered a glorious pro& 4 cr,uebn Wbv +
God and he will see 7A1flfI Of that hand
feel this minute the Xnan who gave me- the
shaking, though the Zen IN heaven twenty five
Christian grip has "a men to-day who can ldok
years There are osKrs ago, when some one Sid
oe,cA " 1orSy y9them Now, old men, pay back
d hinu "olu eo/then. It is great art for old
VIVA VIVA. you gos5le to encourage the young There
.ilen " 20 ayoung people in our cities who have
a. % many Sm inland counties of our own state
eonio i.r9he granite hills of the north, from the
LON mas of the south, from the prairies of
s sava }west. They are here to get their fortune
1ey are in boarding houses where evefyhoIy
ems to be thinking of himself They want
4companionship and they want Christian en-
| couragement Give it to them. My word is
to all clerks in this house: Be mightier than
your temptations A Sandwich Islander used
to think when he slew an enemy all the
strength of that enemy came into his own
| right arm. And I have to tell you that every
misfortune you conquer is so much added to
your moral power. With omnipotence for
lever, and the throne of God for fulcrum,
you can move earth and heaven While there
| are other young men putting the cup of sin to
| their lips, stoop down and drink out of the
| fountains of God and Won will rice I'M strong